Operational Details

Admission

Admission to the School is possible by placing a prospective student on the School's waiting list by calling the School’s office. The waiting list for the next actual registration starts on the first day of October. Children (except 2 years old) must be toilet trained in order to attend Holy Martyrs ARS A. Pilavjian Preschool. The following are the guidelines for enrolling children in age appropriate classroom settings.

A child must be 2 years old by September 1st to be admitted and placed into 2 year old groups.

A child must be 3 years old by September 1st to be admitted and placed into 3 year old groups.

A child must be 4 years old by September 1st to be admitted and placed into 4 year old groups.

Class assignments will be made by the Administration with teacher recommendations. The School Administration reserves the right to make changes to class composition, including but not limited to, reassigning children to other groups.

Each child will have a separate file containing enrollment, health and other confidential information. These files will be kept in locked cabinets in the School office, to ensure confidentiality. Only parents, the child’s teachers and the administration will have access to these files except as otherwise required by law.

The school reserves the right to admit and/or to disenroll any student for any reason in its sole discretion.

Transition

Starting a new school can be a difficult experience for parents and young children. We encourage parents and children to visit the School before and after enrollment.

To ensure a smooth transition from home to school, parents are encouraged to visit the School with their child during Summer Camp and to participate in designated activities.

Prior to making the transition from one group to another, teachers collaborate both with families to make the transition smooth for the child.

At the end of the year the teaching staff creates opportunities for the children to visit the next new age group classroom.

Children transitioning from Preschool to Kindergarten are given opportunities to visit the community Elementary school.

School Calendar

The School operates on a 10 month school year and follows the master calendar provided by the Board of Regents of Western Prelacy Armenian Schools.

Days & Hours of Operation

Preschool hours are from 8:30 AM to 3:00 PM five days per week. Classroom activities begin at 8:30 AM.The concept of time is an important aspect of children’s growth and development. Therefore, it is important that children arrive to school on time each day.

Morning and afternoon extended care services are available for a nominal fee. Morning extended care hours are 7:30-8:30 AM. Afternoon extended care hours are 3:00-5:30 PM. For fee schedule, drop-off/pick up and penalties please contact the school office.

There is a late pick-up fee if your child is not registered for extended care on a monthly basis. Extended care fees are found in the registration packet. For extended care services, please register your child by completing a form at the office.

Parents are welcome to visit their child at any time and observe him/her using the class video monitor.

The School takes no responsibility nor does it assume any liability whatsoever for any harm, claim or incident of any nature including, but not limited to, any injury, accident, illness, or death, or any loss or damage to person or property occurring during or by reason of your child’s presence on campus before and/or after normal school hours.

The following procedures will be taken if a child is not picked up passed the afternoon extended care hours, and parents/guardians haven’t contacted the school:

An attempt will be made to contact individuals listed on the emergency form.

To ensure child’s safety, after a reasonable time period, if the child is not picked up, the local law enforcement authorities will be notified.

Security Attendant

To maximize campus safety and security and to guide the traffic, the school has a security attendant on duty during the school hours.

Visitors and Guests

All visitors and guests are required to sign in at the main office at the beginning of their visit. Any visitor or guest will be asked to provide his or her name, address, and the purpose of his/her visit. The School reserves the right to request proof of identity.

The School Director or his/her designee in his or her discretion may refuse access to School grounds to any visitor or guest.

Any visitor or guest who fails to sign in at the main office shall be considered an unauthorized person. “Unauthorized person” shall also include any student who is currently dis-enrolled from the School or otherwise not permitted to be on School grounds.

Loading, Parking, and Safety

Parents should enter the School from the School’s main entrances/gates. We ask that parents consider our neighbors and honor the City of Los Angeles traffic rules by not blocking or turning in to any of the driveways or making unlawful U-Turns in front of the School.

Park your SUV or Van in the Hayvenhurst parking lot.

When parking in the parking lot, please do not park in the Faculty designated parking spaces and, most importantly, please keep your children next to you at all times.

The school is not responsible for any kind of damage caused to a vehicle while on school grounds, including but not limited to collision, theft, burglary and other damages.

Video Surveillance: To secure the health and safety of children and adults, video surveillance is installed throughout School premises. (See Video Surveillance Policy below.) All activities are monitored and recorded.

Glass door entrance on Parthenia Street will be locked from 9:00 AM to

2:30 PM. To enter the school, please ring the bell and a staff member will open the door.

Persons unknown to the staff will be asked to enter from the office entrance and will be required to show a picture ID.

Video Surveillance and Intercom

To secure the health and safety of children and adults, video surveillance is installed throughout School premises. (See Video Surveillance Policy below.) The School’s main gate entrance door is operated through the intercom system and all activities are monitored and recorded. Parthenia school entry is 9:00 A.M. to 2:30 P.M.

To enter the school, please ring the bell and the gate/door will be opened by a staff member using the intercom system.

To exit the school, please use the Green Exit Button located next to the gate/door.

Persons unknown to the staff will be asked to enter from the office entrance and will be required to show a picture I.D..

Video Surveillance

Video surveillance may occur on School property. Video surveillance shall be limited to preschool classrooms, hallways, stairwells, entrances, school grounds and other areas deemed appropriate by the School Director. The School reserves the right to place cameras in a location known to require a greater need for surveillance. Video surveillance shall not occur in areas where there is a reasonable expectation of privacy, such as locker rooms, restrooms, counseling and nursing offices.

Under no circumstances shall the School’s video surveillance cameras be equipped to record audio or other sound(s). Any audio capability shall be permanently deactivated prior to use by the School. Audio shall not be part of the video recordings made, reviewed or stored buy the School.

The video surveillance system and all resulting recordings shall be located in a secure area and access to the system and recordings shall be strictly limited by the Director or designee. Video images obtained by the School shall be viewed by authorized School personnel as necessary. The School may rely on the images obtained by the video surveillance cameras in connection with the enforcement of School policy and other applicable law, including, but not limited to, student and staff discipline proceedings and matters referred to local law enforcement agencies in accordance with applicable law.

Video images may become part of a student’s educational record in accordance with applicable law. Video images or recordings may become subject to disclosure in response to a lawfully issued subpoena or court order. In the case video surveillance is used for discipline proceedings or becomes a part of your child’s educational record, you, the parent, may request to view the video subject t laws and regulations governing privacy of student records if implicated for students other than your own child. The video recordings may be erased as necessary or recorded over at the discretion of the School.

Videotaping and Photography

During School related activities, children may be photographed and videotaped. To respect the privacy of students, parents, teaching staff and administration, we strongly discourage parents from posting School related pictures or videos on any social networking sites.

Please be advised that the program is not and cannot be held responsible for photographs posted on any social networking site by a parent/guardian or any other person.

The School strongly prohibits parents and guardians establishing pages and blogs on social media using the name of the School. Posting photos of teachers, administration and children is discouraged.

Uniforms / Other Clothing and Preschool Necessities

All students are required to wear their school uniforms daily, beginning with the first day of school. Holy Martyrs ARS A. Pilavjian Preschool uniforms are unisex and consist of the class T-Shirt, hoodies, beanies and navy/black pants or shorts (no jeans). For their own safety, children should wear sturdy and closed toe shoes. Sandals are not recommended.

For information regarding uniform orders, please refer to Registration Information in the child’s enrollment packet. Uniforms must be clean and tidy.

Each child should bring his/her own bedding, an extra pair of underwear and clothing. Please label all his/her belongings and bring them to school in a sturdy plastic zippered bag. The school will not take responsibility for any lost clothing or item.

Children’s bedding will be returned to parents at the end of each week to be washed. The bedding should be returned to school on the first school day the following week.

Each child must bring a clear or solid color backpack in the size 10W x 13H x 5D in.

If your child sleeps with a pillow, the pillow size must be no larger than 8 in. X 7 in.

The School highly recommends you to consider the following all in one bedding option (includes the pillow) that has fitted corners with elastic fasteners listed below along with a clear or solid color backpack (10W x 13H x 5D in).

Toys and Accessories

Children may bring a special sleeping toy for naptime such as a blanket or a soft small toy. Other than sleeping toys, no other toys will be permitted.

Birthdays and Holidays

Because each child is special and needs time to feel very important, we do recognize and celebrate birthdays. Birthdays are celebrated each month.

For this special day, as a classroom project, children prepare cupcakes for their friends to celebrate.

Parents may not distribute favors on birthdays or special occasions due to unforeseen hazards that might jeopardize the health and safety of our children.

Parents may obtain information from the Parent Directory in order to send Birthday/Party invitations. Parent mailboxes are strictly for the school use only.

On holidays such as Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas/New Year, Valentine’s Day, Vartananz, Trndez, Easter, and Armenian Independence Day, the Program encourages children to congratulate each other with a card, a drawing and /or a note. The teacher should be notified a day before the occasion. In this event, all children must be included.

Nutrition / Daily Rest

Our School provides children with three well-balanced meals:

Breakfast – Served between the hours of 8:30 a.m. to 9:00 a.m.

Lunch - Served between the hours of 11:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.

Snack - Served between the hours of 2:00 p.m. to 2:30 p.m.

Our food menu is designed, prepared, served and stored in accordance with the US Department of Agriculture (USDA).

Additional snack is served to children who stay after 3:30 PM.

In case of food allergies, the school will make every effort to collaborate with parents in meeting each child’s nutritional needs.

A sample of a 4-week cycle menu is posted on the parent board. If your child has any food allergies, please notify the teacher and the director.

On a daily basis, preschool children will have a specific time for rest on school provided cots. Necessary resting materials/beddings will be provided by parents and will be sent home at the end of each week to be washed and cleaned.